Quite recently (well, I say recently, but it was actually about 8 months ago) one of the - in my opinion - finest reviewers on the site was given a ticket for "offensive content". Now this members WOT reaches into the hundreds, which makes it clear that a lot of people on the site have never had any problems with his *ahem* 'occasional' cuss, yet it seemed that just one person had made a complaint, and a ticket was subsequently issued.

Not that I want to go too much into that, without any background knowledge behind the issuing of the ticket, but in general what are people's thought on swearing on the main site? Is it acceptable in some cases but not others, or is it just something that people don't want to see at all?

Now, I'm no advocate of using bad language in my reviews, but I'm not someone who shies away from doing so if I feel the need to do so. Sure, if I review a kids film, I'll take into consideration the potential age of my readership and cut out the potty-mouth, but if I'm reviewing a film aimed at the more mature individual, then surely it's not over-stepping the line to drop the coyness?

What are people's thoughts on this subject? I'm sure it's been discussed many times before, but well... I have neither the time nor the patience to search through every topic created in general.

It doesn't really matter what the forum folks think on this subject. If a member believes the content is abusive and reports it and if the Epinions Community Care staff agree, the site policy is pretty clear. Relevant policy and FAQs are copied below.

Detailed Site Usage Policy

When submitting content to Epinions whether in the form of reviews, editorials, comments, ratings or your profile page the following are inappropriate:

Posting material containing profanity, vulgarity, hate speech or threats of violence


FAQs on tickets:

4. How is abuse reported?
Activities on the site that appear to violate Epinions' User Agreement are reported by users to Epinions.com Community Care, who take action when necessary.

5. What are "tickets"?
Tickets are citations issued by Epinions.com Community Care to highlight problems with specific reviews or member accounts. They are triggered by a variety of concerns, mostly involving actual or possible breaches of Epinions' User Agreement. Tickets are visible to other users, but detailed communication about the problem is available only to the affected member.

6. How do tickets affect a member's account?
Tickets have various effects on a cited member's account, depending on the nature of the problem. Often, the offending reviews or account are temporarily hidden from other users until the problems are corrected. In many cases, the account is restored to normal status when the ticket is removed.

Examples:

Offensive Content: Upon receipt of your first ticket the review in question will be hidden from other users. If you delete or edit the review so that it no longer violates the Site Usage Policy the ticket will be removed. Upon receipt of your second ticket, your account will be hidden from other users. If you delete or edit the review so that it no longer violates the Site Usage Policy your account will be restored, and the ticket removed.

If you tread near the edge of propriety and someone believes you have stepped over it you are at risk. Why fight it?

Larry

I personally prefer not to see sware words in reviews but I will not downrate for that (unless it's clearly offensive) But the main reason I don't like seeing the words is b/c sometimes i'll read epinions on my lunch break at work - and I don't want a co-worker to come over and happen to see that and wonder what I'm reading. Plus, my mom and relatives read on this site - I wouldn't want them to see swearing either. It doesn't offend me but it annoys me because I think it is easy enough to get the message out without posting the words in your reviews. I think swearing is unnecessary in most of life though - so that's just me!

I'm with vivasuzi on this one. I don't find swearing a necessary part of life so I don't think it needs to be used here. And anytime you have to * out letters or use other such things to get around a word filter, then it obviously is something that the company we write for doesn't want.

In addition, when writing, we have the luxuory of thinking about what we say and editing. There are so many words at our disposel, it stricks me as lazy when we resort to words that we know might offend others.

Mark

I see no need to swear in a review. Some people have said it is "needed" at times. I did come across one instance myself where the name of a product was actually considered a curse word (It had the word b*itch in it). That, I guess was a necessary swear word since it was the name of the product and not censored in the title of the review.

If the film, book, or product has what could be considered a curse word in it, people should be able to the repeat that in the context of their reviews. Same goes with naming a list of songs on a CD (although I suppose they could be edited like they are on edited CD's) or chapters in a book.

Other than that, I can't think of any reason why someone would NEED to swear to get a point across. I have never used a "curse word" in any of my reviews except the one with the female dog's name as part of the name of the product.

I think I may have used a few super minor words in the Writer's Corner in the context of my father's speech pattern when I wrote about an experience I had with him but I consider the Writer's Corner somewhat different than the review area.

I am turned off by cursing for the sake of cursing in reviews. Good writers can come up with ways to emote without resorting to the usual cursing.

Just my opinion and I know others will disagree.

Patty

I was once asked to leave a forum because I took the lord's name in vain - which was news to me. With all due respect, the accuser and I did not likely have the same lord. That really irritated me.

Swearing doesn't bother me, personally, but I understand the value of avoiding it and have not been in the habit of using that sort of language since I was in highschool. What bothers me about the tickets is that they are not applied evenly - somebody has to complain about you. If you just got a ticket like bam whenever you dropped an f-bomb, this wouldn't even be a discussion. Instead, it's a matter of somebody ratting you out, which could involve all kinds of motives beyond a pure desire to see the site rated PG.

Ok. You all knew this was coming, right?

Tell me exactly why certain words are swearing, and certain other words with the same meaning are not. And... Because my Mom said so is not a valid answer.

When someone can do this, provide a valid answer, I might consider not swearing around them.

You see, I already know why some words came to be taboo... and it's crap. It was to shun an entire race. A move by the church to shun an entire race. I ain't buying it. I'll pick which groups of people to shun myself, thank you very much.

So. What it comes down to is that some folks choose to be offended by sofa, but calling it a divan is a-ok.

Bull.